Bauska Highway Stretch to Lithuanian Border to Be Rebuilt as Four-Lane Expressway
The state company Latvijas Valsts ceļi plans to rebuild a 14.3-kilometre section of the A7 road from the Bauska bypass to the Lithuanian border as a four-lane expressway. A public consultation meeting on the project will be held on 3 November at the Cerauksts community centre.
A project is moving forward in Latvia to rebuild a section of the A7 Bauska highway, a main state road, leading to the Lithuanian border as an expressway with four lanes. The initial public consultation meeting will take place on 3 November at 18:00 at the Cerauksts community centre, and it will also be possible to join remotely, according to information on the website of the Energy and Environment Agency.
What the project involves
The rebuild has been proposed by the state-owned company Latvijas Valsts ceļi (Latvian State Roads). It concerns a roughly 14.3-kilometre stretch of the A7 from kilometre 71.8 to kilometre 86.1, that is, from the end of the Bauska bypass to the Lithuanian border. The reconstruction must meet the requirements of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
At present the road has a single carriageway with two lanes. The plan is to turn it into an expressway with two separated carriageways, with two lanes in each direction. The design and permitted speed is set at 120 kilometres per hour.
Two route alternatives
On 12 January this year, the State Environmental Service decided to apply an environmental impact assessment procedure to the project. Two route alternatives will be evaluated as part of it.
The first would build the section from the end of the Bauska bypass to the municipal road A7–Tīreļi–Griezes–Bruči on a new route. It would bypass the village of Cerauksts and mostly cross agricultural land. The second alternative would widen the existing A7, keeping its location through the village of Cerauksts. In both options, the remaining stretch to the Lithuanian border would involve rebuilding the existing road.
How to take part
The initial public consultation on the project began on 23 October and will run until 13 November. Until that date, written proposals on the planned works can be submitted to the State Environmental Service.
